Treating molasses.



R. D. PIKE. TREATING MOLASSES.

APPLICATION I'ILED 00w. 2, 1901.

Patented Oct. 6, 1908.

v Ro erf 40, P1X

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT D. PIKE, F BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA. v I I To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT D. PIKE, citizen of the United States, residing at Berkeley,

in the county of Alameda. and State of Calii 5 greater than that recovered by the combination of these rocesses at present in use.

In the drawings Figure'l represents the curves showing the velocities of difiusion of the sugar, non sugars, and water, when the molasses is placed on oneside of aparchment paper and Water on the other. The abscissa,

represents the time consumed in the diffusion in the ordinary osmose process and the ordinates, a,.ia1 nounts diffused. At the be- 5 ginning of the operation the velocity of difiusion of the non-sugars is very much greater than that of the sugar, while at the end the velocities of the su ar and non-sugars are nearly e ual. In otlierwor'ds, at the begin- 3 ning of t e process, the ratio of sugar to nonsugars in the osmose water is much less than toward the end, and asthe sole object is to separate the non-sugars and leave the sugar be ind in the molasses, the osmose process can be said to work most efiiciently at the start, and to gradually decrease in efficiency as the difius'ion proceeds. By the combination of osmose and crystallization in this in vention, the entire osmosing of themolasses 40 is carried on with an efficiency approximating that obtained at the start 'of the'ordinary osmose process.

Fig. 2 shows a form of apparatus with which my invention can be put into ractiee.

In Fig. 2, 9, is an osmose apparatus 0 any de sired form. 10 is a tank into which the osmose syrup falls.

from which the syru is taken through the evaporators, X, in w 1011 it is concentrated,

' Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 2, 1907. Serial No. 895,570.

11 is a pump delivering this syrup to the evaporator supply tank, 12,

Patented Oct. 6, 1908.

downward. It is surrounded with a jacket, 2, in which steam is circulated, and with a perforated false bottom, 15, and a perforated false top, 6, the perforations 1n the top, 6, and the bottom, 15, respectively being too small to admit the passage of sugar crystals of the usual size. A stirrer, 5, whose axis of rotation coincides with the axis of the frustum, is adapted to gently agitate'the mixture of molasses and crystals in which it rotates. 7 isa tank into which the pump, 4, delivers the molasses which has been forced to percolate through the crystals in A, and 8 is a i e addin fresh molasses to the molasses off t ecrystafiizer. The mixture in the tank, 7, again goes through the osmose apparatus, 9.

\ In carrying out the process of beet sugar manufacture, what is known as second strikes are obtained. A second strike is a mixture of sugar crystals and mother li uor whose purity co-efiicient is 75-80, and w ose mother liquor has a purity co-eflicient of approximately 68'72. By the ordinary process of rotary crystallization the purity co-efficient of the mother liquor is reduced 80 to 61'. It is this mother liquor of 61 purity, called end molasses, which is treated in this process in the following manner. If the crystallizer, A, will hold fifteen tons of fillmass (a mixture of sugar crystals and mother 35 liquor) place in it one ton of raw sugar crystals, and into the steam jacket, 2, introduce steam of'a temperature of 80 degrees to .90 degrees C. Now subject about five tons of the end molasses to a rapid osmose treatment in the osmogene, 9, so as to raise its purity co-eflicient from 61 to about 62, and then pump itthrough the evaporators, X, so that it will leave them at such a concentration as to have a co-eflicient of supersaturation of about 1.2 at the temperature of the steam in the jacket, 2, of the crystallizer, A. As the concentrated syrup comes through the last evaporator, the pump, 4, draws it out and pumps it through the per- 100 forated false bottom, 15, and thence up through the sugar crystals which are being agitated by the stirrer, 5. Owing to its supersaturation at the temperature in the crystallizer, A, the syrup deposits syrup on 105 the exciting crystals contained therein, and

its passage is so timed that when it passes through the perforated false top, 6, it has had its purity co-efficient lowered from 62 to the original purity co-efficient of the end molasses, namely 61. It now passes into the tank, 7, where enough of the original'end molasses is added to it to makeup for the loss of solid material incurred in the osmose and crystallizer, or, in other words, to restore the molasses in the process to its original weight of five tons and the mixture, as fast as it comes in, is passed on again through the osmose, raising its purity about one degree as before, and so on through the same cycle of operations.

It is thus seen that a continuous stream of molasses is passing through the cycle of operations, namely, osmosis, concentration, crystallization, addition of new molasses, once the process is started. The osmose action will continue to be effective until about ten additional tons of original end molasses have been added to the five tons started with when thispoint has been reached, at the end of about 125 hours, the process is completed. The crystallizer, A, is now emptied in any suitable manner and the contents centrifualed. The molasses obtained is the real al molasses of a factory using this process, and is only about one-third of the end molasses ordinarily obtained, while, at the same time, fifty percent. and over of the sugar existing in the original end molasses has been recovered. This hi h recovery is possible because the molasses 1s passed rapidly through the osmogene thus causing the action of diffusion to take place near the origin of the curves in Fig. 1, or, as was ointed out above, in the region of highest e ciency or lowest purity of the osmose Water.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. The method herein described of treating molasses which consists, essentially, in rapidly osmosing and then concentrating the osmose syrup to supersaturation; then crystallizing this s rup until the purity coefiicient of the res ting moleasses 1s ap roXimatel that of the molasses previous y osmose then adding fresh molasses to the osmosed molasses; and then reosmosing the combined molasses.

2. The method herein described of treating molasses which consists, essentially, in rapidly osmosing the molasses and then concentrating the osmose syrup to supersaturation; then crystallizing the syrup while the same is flowing or in motion, and until the purity coefficient of the resulting molasses is approximately that of the molasses previously osmosed; then adding fresh molasses to the osmosed molasses; and then reosmosing the molasses of the crystallizer.

3. The method herein described of treating molasses which consists, essentially, in rapidly osmosing the molasses and then concentrating the osmose syrup to supersaturation; then crystallizing the syrup 111 a closed chamber on exciting crystals, and simultaneously flowing the syrup therethrough with a velocity which is greater in the inlet portion of the crystallizer than in the outlet portion thereof; then adding fresh molasses to this osmosed molasses; and then reosmosing the combined molasses.

4. The method herein'described of treating molasses which consists, essentially, in rapidly osmosing the molasses and then concentrating the osmose syrup to supersaturation; then erystallizing the syrup in a closed chamber on exciting crystals, and simultaneously fiowin the syrup therethrou h with a velocity w ich is greater in the in et portion of the crystallizer than in the outlet 1plortion thereof; while subjecting the crystal- 'zer to a temperature suflicient to maintain the supersaturation of the syru addin fresh molasses to the osmosedmo asses, an then reosmosing the molasses of the crystallizer. I

In testimonywhereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

. ROBERT D. PIKE. Witnesses:

CHARLES A. PENFIELD, S. H. NOURSE. 

